Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC

2018 Vault Rankings

About Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC

Just past the half-century mark, Eckert Seamans has rapidly
grown into a major east coast law firm with ten offices and more
than 340 attorneys practicing across a fully diversified spectrum
of legal services.

Bucking Trends the Eckert Way

Founded in 1958as Eckert, Seamans & Cherin, the firm quickly
attracted a weighty roster of clients, including Alcoa,
Westinghouse, Levinson Steel, Equitable Gas, Ford Motor Company and
the Great A&P Tea Company. Based in Pittsburgh, Eckert has
offices in Massachusetts, West Virginia, New York, Delaware and
Washington, DC. The firm counsels a wide range of clients including
individuals, entrepreneurial start-ups, nonprofits, corporations
and government agencies.

In 2009-a belt-tightening time for many other law firms-Eckert
went on a hiring spree, bringing on dozens of attorneys to boost
its labor law and litigation departments. The firm lured legal
talent with competitive salaries and flexible rate structures. In
another strategic hiring move, the firm resolved to only hire
second or third-year associates to "avoid paying costly starting
salaries to lawyers just learning the ropes," according to the ABA
Journal.

Also on the personnel scene, the firm takes interest in its
female legal players with its Women's Initiative at Eckert, or WIE.
And its efforts don't go unnoticed: Working Mother Magazine and
Flex-Time Lawyers have ranked Eckert as one of best firms for women
to work at in the U.S.

Sweater Vests Welcome

In 2007 Eckert hired future Republican presidential nomination
candidate Rick Santorum, then a U.S. Senator representing
Pennsylvania, as an attorney in its Washington, DC office after
Santorum lost his senate seat to Democrat Bob Casey. Santorum, who
had worked as an attorney at New York-based Kirkpatrick and
Lockhart before entering the political fray, left the firm just one
year later. Maybe his departure had something to do with the fact
that, as the Pittsburgh Tribune pointed out, Eckert members had
donated more to political opponent Casey than to Santorum's
campaign in the most recent election.